The New York Botanical Garden

JOURNAL OF The New York Botanical Garden VOL. XII October, 1911. No. \A2. REPORT ON A VISIT TO THE ROYAL GARDENS, KEW, ENGLAND, AND TO THE BRITISH MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY. To THE SCIENTIFIC DIRECTORS, Gentlemen: Pursuant to your permission I sailed from New- York, August 9, on the Cunard steamship "Lusitania," accom panied by Mrs. Britton, arriving at Fishguard, Wales, August 14, and proceeded to the Royal Gardens at Kew, Surrey, England, for the purposes: (1) of studying the living plant collections in the grounds and greenhouses with reference to comparison with our own and in particular those of cactuses; (2) for the com parison in the Kew Herbarium, and in that of the British Museum of Natural History, of over nine hundred specimens of Cuban plants of our recent collecting, which I took with me for that purpose, together with a considerable number from Jamaica; be sides (3) for information concerning a number of questions which have arisen during the course of our work, only to be obtained by reference to older collections. An exceptionally severe and prolonged drought had turned usually moist and green southern England to grey and brown, so that much of its normal beauty was absent; fields and lawns in particular were affected, the latter so much so in many places as to make us wonder if they could ever be brought back to their usual velvet-like condition without ploughing and resowing. Gardens also, naturally, had suffered severely; shrubs showed leaves and fruits dried up long before their time for falling; trees 215 216 were losing their leaves a month or more before they ordinarily would and herbaceous plants were flowering much less freely than is usual. In spite of these, for England, extraordinary conditions, Kew was fascinatingly attractive, and the great number of different plants brought together from all parts of the world is almost bewildering, and of surpassing interest. Many of the young trees of many kinds, planted in recent years, had made good growths since my visit, of two years ago, and the living collections of all kinds had developed and had been increased in variety; I took note of many species desirable for cultivation with us; the climate conditions are so different, however, that a great many species, thriving in southern England in the open, can only be maintained under glass at New York. The cactus collection at Kew contains a number of South American species not yet obtained for the Bronx, notably certain kinds of Cereus and related genera, and some of these are very fine large plants. Several of them came into bloom during my visit and a study of their flowers enabled me to satisfactorily refer them to the genera in which they properly belong. I asked, and was promised, cuttings of some of these cacti, for our own collection. The genera Pereskia and Pereskiopsis, in which Dr. Rose and I are at present especially interested, are not well rep resented at Kew, and I am sending duplicate plants there in exchange for the Cereus cuttings, together with some other cacti. Our field work in Cuba has made our collections of plants from that island very large and representative, comprising, taken to gether with collections made under other auspices, not fewer than 20,000 different specimens. The study of these plants seemed to disclose the existence in Cuba of such an unexpectedly large number of species new to science that I deemed it very desirable to check these results by comparisons of a selection of the apparent novelties at the great herbarium at Kew, and to prove or disprove the identity of others of which I was uncertain. I accomplished this interesting investigation, though not without continuous application, for the number of observations required was very large. The general result is that our exploration work 217 adds some four hundred species to the known flora of Cuba, most of which are undescribed and new to science, a result well worth the time and cost entailed. Some of these I propose to describe myself, and to submit others to associates and corre spondents for description. The greater number of novelties in habit the mountainous portions of the Province of Oriente, explored by Dr. J. A. Shafer in 1909, and 1910 and 1911; the region next most prolific in new species is the mountainous part of Santa Clara, explored by myself, with Mrs. Britton, Professor F. S. Earle and Mr. Percy Wilson in 1910; and other new types are found in the collections made elsewhere. Important addi tions to knowledge of geographic distribution of plants have also been made. The field is so evidently unexhausted, that I propose to con tinue Cuban exploration, as previously authorized, and I have commissioned Dr. Shafer to proceed to the Province of Pinar del Rio for two months' collecting, and thence to Santa Clara for one month; I desire to personally study portions of Oriente not yet visited by any of our collectors or by other botanists and to make this exploration in March and April of 1912. Opportunity was taken during my visit to these great British institutions to obtain information relative to the type specimens of many American plants, for use in " North American Flora" and elsewhere; for reference to some literature of botany not con tained in our library; for observations on variegated plants for the use of Professor Harper in his forthcoming investigation on this interesting topic; and for methods of cultivation of many species. Mrs. Britton continued her studies of mosses both at Kew and at the British Museum and obtained data of importance for use in the forthcoming first bryological part of "North American Flora." We took with us parcels of duplicate West Indian mosses for both institutions, as exchanges. She made pleasant visits to Dr. Braithwaite in London, Mr. Dixon in Northampton and Mr. Nicholson in Lewes for consultation relative to bryo logical questions of mutual interest, as well as to the Misses Mitten, at Hurst Pierpoint; it will be remembered that the moss 218 collections of their father, the late distinguished William Mitten, became the property of the New York Botanical Garden by purchase, several years ago, this purchase having been made possible by generous friends of the Garden. I also transmitted, at the time of my visit, both to the Royal Gardens, Kew, and to the British Museum of Natural History, sets of herbarium specimens collected by our Mr. R. S. Williams in Bolivia in 1901-3, when he accompanied the expedition organized by Sir Martin Conway; these specimens have been in course of study by Dr. H. H. Rusby who has published descriptions of many of them, while others will be described by him in a paper now ready for printing. We were most cordially received at Kew and at the British Museum, and were given much important assistance in our work by the staffs of both institutions; and we are grateful to Col. Prain, Director of the Royal Gardens, and to Dr. Rendle, Keeper of the Museum's Department of Botany, and their associates for this kind cooperation. Respectfully submitted, N. L. BRITTON, Director-in- Chief. THE PLANT PHOTOGRAPH EXHIBIT. A set of 214 enlarged photographs, illustrating plant societies, habit-, flower-, and fruit-characters of trees and other higher plants, as well as habit and structural characters of some of the larger algae and fungi, has been installed in the systematic museum of the Garden. The photographs, which are 11 X 14 inches in size, are mounted in glazed frames, 43 of them bearing four each of the bromide enlargements and seven bearing six each. The frames are fastened to the walls of the museum on the second floor and, so far as practicable, have been placed near the cases containing representatives of the species illustrated. The en largements have been made chiefly from 4X5 negatives ob tained by various Garden expeditions to Florida, the Bahamas, Cuba, Haiti, Santo Domingo, Porto Rico, and Panama. About 219 150 more enlargements have been made, provided with printed labels, and await the completion of frames in order to be installed. Both the present grouping in the frames and the position of the frames on the walls are provisional and will be subject to better ment from time to time as other photographs become available. The labels of the photographs thus far installed are given below, omitting the explanatory details and not attempting to reproduce the typography and alignment. In several cases where a label appears to be repeated, the accompanying photographs differ in detail, as would be evident if the labels were here reprinted in full. The Deceptive Halimeda, Halimeda simulans M. A. Howe. Codium Family (Algae). Culebra Island, Porto Rico. The Discoid Halimeda, Halimeda discoidea Decaisne. Codium Family (Algae). Caesar's Creek, Florida. The Merman's Shaving-Brush, Penicillus pyriformis A. & E. S. Gepp. Codium Family (Algae). Bernini Harbor, Bahamas. The Mermaid's Wine-Glass, Acetabulum crenulatum (Lamour.) Kuntze. Dasycladus Family (Algae). Miami, Florida. The Sea Broom, Cladocephalus scoparius M. A. Howe. Co dium Family (Algae). Great Exuma, Bahamas. The Goblet Udotea, Udotea cyathiformis Decaisne. Codium Family (Algae). Bahama Islands. The Coherent Udotea, Udotea conglutinata (Ell. & Soland.) Lamour. Codium Family (Algae). Bahama Islands. Halimedas with Sporangia, Halimeda Tuna (Ell. & Soland.) Lamour. and Halimeda tridens (Ell. & Soland.) Lamour. Codium Family (Algae). Culebra Island and Tallaboa, Porto Rico. The Honey-Comb Halimeda, Halimeda favulosa M. A. Howe. Codium Family (Algae). Cave Cays, Bahamas. [An entire plant.] The Honey-Comb Halimeda, Halimeda favulosa M. A. Howe. Codium Family (Algae). Cave Cays, Bahamas. [A portion of surface magnified.] The Erect Goniolithon, Goniolithon strictum Fosl.

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